Art Wednesday

Words by Stephen McEwen.

Over Gardens Out is the second play to be produced at Riverside Studios as part of its rather compact season of Peter Gill’s early works from the mid-sixties. Peter Gill may not sound like a familiar name, in the vein of David Hare or Harold Pinter, but his importance in the creation of what we now consider to be the contemporary British theatrical establishment is not to be understated. He was a leading figure in the early days of the Royal Court, producing some of his friend Joe Orton’s work, as well as reviving the much neglected drama of D.H Lawrence. He also founded the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, in addition to being an associate director at the National. As a director and a writer, he has a particularly strong idea of what he wants to say, and in straddling these two roles, like Arnold Wesker, Gill has been famous in recent years for defending the individuality and autonomous creativity of the writer, in a theatrical milieu increasingly dominated by the vision of the director stamped onto a text. So – how has Good Night Out seen fit to produce this work? Rather well, is the simplest answer.

The play, set in Gill’s native Cardiff in 1968, depicts the intense relationship between two young boys – Jeffry and Dennis. Jeffry is recently moved to Cardiff, following a stint in a juvenile institution, and Dennis lives at home with his soon-to-be unwell mother, and religious father, in mundane, working-class domesticity. We do not know why or how they met; all we see, and need to see, is their current relationship, and the way in which both boys express their frustration at the debilitating effect of their surroundings on their adolescent individuality.

Without any real plot per se, the strengths of the work – around which Good Night Out seems to have successfully based its production – are the staging, and the relationship between the boys. The theatrical space is framed, to an extent like the boys themselves, by shelving units littered with objects of domesticity. This dramatic membrane allows for dextrous movement, with all characters on stage at any given point, demonstrating the omnipresence of that which seems to constantly surround the boys, and consequently stifle them. Calum Calaghan as Jeffry and Meilir Rhys Williams, in his professional debut as Dennis, both provide invigorating, energetic performances which vibrantly react to the calm sobriety from which the boys desire to break free. Calaghan has a charming boyishness which acts as a strikingly relevant foil to the fun campness of Williams, and the two actors seems to revel in the quick changes of ambiance with which the performance is punctuated. The rather overt homoerotic nature of their relationship moves from tenderness, as the boys sit huddled in an abandoned gun shelter, to buoyant playfulness, as they chase each other around the stage, to transvestism, as they put on the women’s clothing they have just stolen off a washing line, and to a stark sadomasochism, as they regularly threaten each other – at one charged moment Jeffry vigorously spanks Dennis. Yet this is not the entirety of the play, as this conceptual thrust is matched with Gill’s interest in familial bonds, in particular the mother-son relationship. Williams and Kirsten Clark deftly portray a relationship which is a mixture of anxsty teen and complaining mother, and heartfelt familial closeness – and a refreshing celebration thereof in one scene in which they dance excitedly together.

The play is admittedly rather short, yet this is not to be seen as a negative aspect. One would much rather leave a short play asking for more, than leave wondering why such a short space of time had been wasted. With such a lack of a strong dramatic paradigm of exposition, conflict and denouement, the play’s foundation is in its expressive manifestation of two young souls brought together through their difficulty. To quote the famous literary critic, Ronseal, it does what it says on the tin, and very well at that.

Over Gardens Out runs at the Riverside Studios from 19^th October – 6^th November.